President Donald Trump didn’t mention bitcoin (BTC) during his inaugural speech and crypto was absent from his first batch of executive orders, but Polymarket bettors are confident a pardon for Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht will be coming soon.
A Polymarket contract asking who Trump will pardon in his first 100 days in office shot up to 99% after posts on X from Elon Musk, and Angela McArdle, chair of the Libertarian National Committee, said that a pardon for Ulbricht was in the works.
Pres. Trump’s staff just confirmed to me Ross’s pardon will be issued late tonight or tomorrow morning. ❤️
— Angela McArdle (@angela4LNCChair) January 21, 2025
Trump first promised to pardon Ulbricht during a campaign stop at the Libertarian National Convention last May.
“If you vote for me, on Day 1, I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht to a sentence of time served,” Trump said during a speech last year. “He’s already served 11 years, we’re gonna get him home.”
Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2015 for his role in the operation of the Silk Road marketplace, which pioneered the use of the dark web.
Supporters of Ulbricht say that his sentence was disproportionately long for the crime.
Elsewhere on the Polymarket pardon list is Roger Ver, an early bitcoin investor and bitcoin cash (BCH) advocate, who was indicted for tax fraud last April, and the market is giving a 32% chance of a pardon taking place in the first 100 days.
Despite crypto playing a prominent part of Trump’s campaign, Polymarket bettors are only giving a 43% of a crypto executive order, regarding the use, trading, or legal status of digital assets, happening in the first week.
